John Porcaro, Group Manager, PR and Communications Games Global Mktg

An upper-level manager at Microsoft games has firmly denied that Microsoft will release games on HD-DVD.

John Porcaro, group manager of PR and communications, has written in a blog maintained by Microsoft’s Games Global Marketing team that the external HD-DVD drive for the Xbox360 will only be used for playing movies.

“Since announcing the Xbox360 HD-DVD Player accessory at E3 2006, we’ve been clear that it is designed exclusively for playing HD-DVD movies."

“It will not play games on HD-DVD”, he writes.

The reason for this? “We haven’t seen anything to suggest that next-gen DVD formats offer a better game experience than current DVD.”

The added cost involved in developing high-definition games on next-generation discs would apparently “negatively impact the game experience”.

So now you know.

>> Microsoft - Official website of Microsoft